Hatton House Diaries

The before photo, try not to judge.

There have been a few happy bonuses of the Minimalism Game, a project in which we spent the month of November decluttering. Once I started clearing out our clutter, it allowed me to see things differently. The decluttering itself freed up some space in the last corner of unpacking the house from our move two years ago, and what I was able to sell totaled about $600. Suddenly, the project of finishing the soccer shrine in the alcove off our bedroom didn’t seen to insurmountable, with space cleared and a budget for paint and poster frames.

We finally got the air conditioner moved back up to the attic for the winter, moved the spare wood flooring to the hallway for future project staging. Once we’d decluttered the main bedroom (part way at least!) we were able to rearrange the furniture to include the piece on the right into the main room. The bookcase on the left was in pretty bad shape, having entered the world as a fiber board covered cheapo that was harassed by years of projects and paint splatters and other abuses. We inherited it from the previous owners of the house, and decided it was better suited for use in the basement ceramics studio, so down the stairs it went. That allowed the boxes to move out long enough for painting, and Ikea cables to go up just below the ceiling line. Then the room started to come together.

Our collection of scarves went up around the top of the room, hung over the Ikea cables, and grouped by US game/tournament scarves, AO chapter scarves, club scarves, and international scarves. We moved the Stokke Keep shelving unit in to house our collection of signed jerseys, balls, shoes, and other assorted ephemera. I still have to find the official World Cup licensed condoms from 1998, and I need poster frames for a few pieces, and I thought I would transfer my pin collection to ribbons and hang those, and there’s a matter of rearranging the window treatments in the bedroom so this room has something that fits, but I’m pretty excited about the progress so far. You can follow our continued soccer adventures at my other blog, www.soccerfamilystyle.com.

That’s more like it! The soccer shrine coming together.

The 2013 qualifying set, the 2010 Total Jackassery scarf, and various Korea and Germany era scarves.

International scarves

Weird collections: the Germany hat I wore to my first USMNT game, and an ironic licensed beanie baby holding a collection of World Cup condoms. Oh, and unrelated CJ Sapong’s shoes.